


fallen like lucifer

by Sevi (KelSevi)



Category: Shin Megami Tensei II
Genre: (because i cannot be stopped), (specifically hiroko and gabriel raise a baby aleph), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-20
Updated: 2017-02-12
Packaged: 2018-09-18 16:51:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9394400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KelSevi/pseuds/Sevi
Summary: Gabriel. God's Messenger. The Holy Spirit. There are many things that she is. Many titles that she beholds.But what if she were to fall, much like Lucifer had in days of old? To commit sins against her Creator, for the sake of a young boy and a woman meant for so much more?





	1. 20XX-2 Years Later

**Author's Note:**

> [This picture](http://kelsevi.deviantart.com/art/A-Fambly-651679823) I drew is the basis and inspiration for both the AU and this fic.
> 
> Thanks to idamdra.tumblr.com for supporting me and my silly AU with [this drabble.](http://blacksamurailiterature.tumblr.com/post/155362660320/will-need-to-know-one-day)

It was never just a simple matter of hiding herself.

No, it never could be. Not when she had blood on her hands.

Blood on her hands, blood that was supposed to be inconsequential. Human blood, blood that could wash away in the stream.

But this blood was no longer only hers to bear. A mother and her child bore witness to her crime, her split-second panic. And not only were they her witnesses, but they were her most beloved, as well.

A beautiful young woman, barely aged two decades at most, and her newborn infant, silent and lacking understanding. Participants in what she called ‘the Messiah Project,’ the to-be Mary and Jesus of the new Millennium. The mother had a natural birth - she, that is, the subject of this story, would have never allowed something so mechanical and unnatural as a cesarean to ruin the holy nature of their Messiah - and was about to be put safely to sleep so the head scientist could take her baby from her.

It was all according to plan. To one God’s plan; to create a true Thousand Year Kingdom. To another one’s; to lead to the creation of the harbinger of destruction, and to bring about a new age, a new beginning, a new world of true believers.

So, then, why?

Why did she interfere? Why did she steal away the mother and infant meant to bring forth a new age?

Her regrets haunt her just the same, every day.

・・・

「新宿区－ＳＨＩＮＪＵＫＵ」

２０ＸＸ－２　ＹＥＡＲＳ　ＬＡＴＥＲ

“Gabriel? I’m home!”

She heard the familiar tamp-tamp-tamp of rubber boots before she did the slam of a crooked door, and a sheepish “sorry!” shortly after. As she stepped out from the kitchen with her hands held loosely together, she came face-to-face with a blond woman carrying a worn, faded plastic bag full of items. The woman smiled warmly, showing a couple of her pearly teeth through her lips, just as she did every time she came home.

“I got caught up talking to Hanoun again,” she explained hastily. “That shop of hers has been getting some extra business from Akasaka so she has more macca to spend than usual.” The woman walked briskly into the dining room and set the goods onto the table. “So she let me take something for free. She’s so kind!”

Gabriel hummed with slight disinterest, if only because small talk was not one of her strong suits. Having lived many millennia, she had long ago ran out of “topics” and “things” to talk about. And yet, humans could find so much to say about what amounted to nothing in her eyes. “What did you bring home, Hiroko?”

“I went ahead and bought the essentials, of course. Your favorite bread, canned soup and vegetables… Oh, and the thing I got for free! It’s not much, but I think Aleph will love it.”

“What is it?” Her interest was suddenly captured when she heard the boy’s name. Gabriel floated past the doorway and peered over the woman’s shoulder, unable to resist her curiosity despite her usual patience. In her hands was a complex-looking plastic toy of some sort. It was round, although it had bright, red-colored indentations along its surface, and what looked to be small marbles inside it, seen through clear plastic. Hiroko rocked it idly in her hands, and the toy rattled with an odd grinding noise that sounded displeasing to the naked ear... but perhaps human children enjoyed making such a racket.

She could only guess at such a phenomenon; she knew nothing about human children herself. Everything she knew she learned from watching Hiroko.

“Speaking of, where is Aleph? Is he asleep?” She set the toy down on the table with the rest of the groceries, and faced Gabriel. Though she was a mortal, she was chosen to bear the Messiah for a reason… Her face was soft yet firmly built, and her eyes such a solid steel, though Gabriel would argue they were more like the silvers used in crafting gauntlets.

Every time they locked eyes, it always gave her pause.

“... He is reading right now. Those picture books you gave him last week have keep him occupied for many hours at a time.”

Hiroko smiled again, wider than when she stepped into the house. “Really? I’m so glad. He always looked so lonely when I left in the mornings…”

“Yes…” And there was no denying the boy was lonely. Though he was still young, Gabriel could tell he missed Hiroko’s warmth during the day. Though she tried and tried, she knew she could never make him as happy as when Hiroko--

“MOM!!” Her thoughts were interrupted by the high-pitched squawk of a growing human boy - Aleph, of course. He stumbled in through their shared bedroom and raced toward Hiroko with blinding speed. Almost as if on cue, Hiroko crouched to the ground, caught up the boy in her arms, and swung him up with dangerous fervor. (Gabriel always worried Hiroko would accidentally throw him into the ceiling, the way she caught him up, but thus far it’s never happened.)

Immediately, Hiroko began cooing and coddling her son. “He~llo Aleph! Have you been a good boy while I was away?” He nodded sharply with a wide grin that showed off some of his baby teeth. “Were you nice to mommy Gabriel?” He nodded again, though both Hiroko and Gabriel knew he would nod regardless of his behavior that day. He was a smart child, after all. “Did you like the pictures in those books?” Yet another nod - Gabriel really wondered if he understood what she was telling him.

“Then I have a present for you! Close your eyes!” And she modeled for him, by slipping one hand away from him and holding it over her eyes. Aleph blinked, bright purplish-blue eyes staring up at a black gloved hand, before he mimicked her with his own tiny hands. Hiroko moved her hand and laughed. “Yes, just like that! Just keep doing that!”

She carried him to the dining room table, and Aleph immediately pulled his hands away from his face. He giggled and reached his hands out for the mass of items on the table.

“Oops! Now, I told you not to look! But I guess you saw it anyway. See, I got a toy for you!” Hiroko picked up the noisy toy from earlier and shook it in front of Aleph. He retracted his arms back toward his body and focused on the toy, a mixture of wonder and confusion coloring his eyes. “Here’s the toy! You want the toy, right? Betcha you do!”

...

...Though she rattled the toy again and again, all he did was stare at it. She stopped shaking it, then glanced at Gabriel with a weary sort of look. Gabriel in turn looked at Aleph, and then back at Hiroko, and then eyed the toy itself. Was it as displeasing to the boy as it was to her? Perhaps Hiroko made a mistake?

“... Uh… Haha, I’ll just put it in your room with the rest of your toys, then! No big deal. You can play with it later.” Hiroko knelt down and unloaded the child before walking off toward the room Aleph came from. He watched Hiroko go, and then stared up at Gabriel with just as much confusion as he had when she first presented the gift to him.

She smiled knowingly down at him. “... I do not quite understand the appeal either, dear. Would you like to read your books with me?”

Books! He recognized what those were! With another grin, he nodded and disappeared after Hiroko.

Gabriel quietly watched them go. They resemble each other quite a bit, even if they look nothing like one another… She wondered if Aleph would, in his older years, come to look like herself as well.

Would he take after her human form, as she looked now, or her true form, as an angel?

・・・

They laid together in one cuddled mass that night. The sun never touched the Underworld, of course, but artificial lights set up by the Akasakan Jirae simulated day and night. It wasn’t very much, but for the few humans living there it was a blessing and a necessity.

The three of them did not always sleep together. Aleph had his own crib that he slept in, and Gabriel did not need to sleep in the first place. But, whenever the stars aligned, sometimes they all found themselves pressed together on one twins-sized mattress.

On nights like this, Gabriel and Hiroko slept facing inward. One arm from each of them rested on Aleph, and Aleph himself was curled up between them and cuddling a decorated pillow that was starting to show signs of wear and tear. He was already fast asleep.

Hiroko, though she worked herself dawn to dusk providing for the Shinjuku community, always took a while to fall asleep. Usually, she would get the bed to herself, and would shift and turn under the covers until she found the perfect comfortable spot. When she and Gabriel slept together, they faced away from one another, and never spoke a word during the night. (She always wondered if this was for Aleph’s sake, or if she held an ongoing grudge. She could not blame her either way.)

But, when they all slept together like this, all Hiroko could do was look ahead in the heavy darkness. She always made a point to focus on her son as he slept soundly between them, and most of the time so did Gabriel. How could she not, when she herself was a factor in his creation?

That night, however, she drew her eyes from Aleph to Hiroko. It was not often she was allowed the luxury of seeing such a beautiful face at this time of night, and any time she thought she could sneak a glance in her direction and catch a glimpse of her, she did.

For a long time, Gabriel did not know what to call these feelings that made her to look at Hiroko the way she did. She dared not consider it lust; the very thought of committing premarital sin shook her to her core. And to her, love was inconsequential and ultimately self-defeating; more so with a mortal who would never earn the chance to live forever. Such a childish gesture would never “fly” with her brothers, as Hiroko would so gracefully put it.

And yet…

If Aleph were not sitting between them, she wondered if her self-restraint would hold out, if she would be able to stop herself from reaching out and caressing Hiroko’s imperfect cheeks... from petting her wavy hair, with every stray strand standing out to her like cracks in the road.

In a way, she felt as though she has fallen like Lucifer had so, so very long ago. And every minute of it gave her second thoughts, gave her fears and paranoia and the looming terror of their eventual demise should they be found out by her brothers, or worse…

She knew He would not allow her continued existence, or that of Hiroko and Aleph. But the thought of going so far as to become like Lucifer…

It tempted her. But temptation would not win this battle, no matter how badly she wished to hold Hiroko in her arms.

She would simply watch her sleep, then. As she always did on nights like these.


	2. Please Do Not Worry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel and Aleph hide from the Center. Aleph needs a haircut. Hiroko gets scared.

“Mom…”

Gabriel set a finger on Aleph’s mouth and shushed him calmly. However, she felt anything but calm as the crunch, jangle and step of two humans in armored garb passed their shaky abode.

They were Messians, and from the sounds of alloy scraping against alloy, they could be Templar Knights… or worse, Terminators. The very thought of the Center sending Terminators down to wreak havoc upon Shinjuku was more than enough to shoot ice through her veins and stop her beating heart, but to her knowledge, no wanton destruction had occurred outside of their household.

Gabriel had pressed herself and Aleph in a small, tight space - one of the lower cabinets in the kitchen, where old, rotting and smelly pipes obstructed their view, at least a little bit. There was a small space behind those pipes, and that is where they hid, despite the aching tightness of the box. Though many things she was, an adept shapeshifter she was not; even in human form, she was incredibly tall, and had she her wings she probably would not have fit.

Having Aleph lay tightly against her chest was also a bother, but she would dare not complain as she held him as close as possible. She could feel raggedy hot breaths on her chest and the feeble attempts of a tiny child - two, maybe three years old, now, she recalled - to self-soothe and not cry, and she began stroking his soft black hair in an attempt to keep him calm.

This was the third-- no, fourth time, now. The fourth time the Center has come searching the Underground for clues. Whenever they arrived, they would march around, and the usually-loud and rambunctious Jirae and Fairies living in the area would fall deadly silent. Never do the knights they send down interrogate the demons, for if they did she was sure someone would out them and she would have been long ago discovered.

Hiroko was out in the world somewhere, and suddenly it hit Gabriel that she might not be safe if she was unaware of what was happening. Her heart began pumping again like a marching drum, faster and faster and louder and more rhythmically until she could feel a disastrous warmth in her face and a pounding in her ears.

Aleph whimpered. Gabriel shushed him again, and whispered, “You are safe with me, child… Please,” and her voice cracked, and she cleared her voice and tried again, “please do not worry.”

This did little to comfort him, but he nodded briskly against her chest and hid his face to her bosom. There was little more sound from him, but small, wet circles formed and made themselves apparent on her outfit.

They marched by, again, moving in the opposite direction. Their armor rattled loud in Gabriel’s mind, and she hoped and prayed they would leave sooner than later.

・・・

Gabriel sat on the floor with Aleph in her lap, carefully brushing through his hair to remove any fallen soot and grime that came from the ceiling of the cabinet. They both remained quiet, still processing what had just happened, though Aleph was fiddling with his toes while Gabriel cleaned him up.

His hair was getting long now, she realized. It touched his shoulders in soft, long curls, and his bangs were starting to cover his eyes completely. Of course, he dealt with it by brushing the hair to either side of his face, but he still couldn’t help the occasional loc that fell back across his forehead and touched his nose.

The first thing she said in over twenty minutes, then, was: “Would you like a haircut, Aleph?”

He perked up and leaned back against Gabriel’s body, tilting his head up with no regard for her hygienal concern whatsoever. “Mm-hm. I wanna haircut.”

She smiled down at him, but it was the kind of smile one usually afforded children in rough times. “I was thinking we could cut your bangs so you can see… Maybe trim your hair so it’s shorter, too?”

His eyes lit up, and he smiled back at her. “Ooh! I wanna see mommy!”

“Of course you will, my child,” Gabriel cooed, and she brushed another hand across his head, making sure to push aside any stray locs that threatened to fall into his face. “How short would you like your hair?”

Aleph sat up again and stared forward for a moment, thinking long and hard about what she asked. Then, he held his hands out in front of him and pulled them waaaaaaaaay far apart from each other with a satisfied grin on his face. “Like this, like this!”

Even though she was certain Aleph completely missed the point, she couldn’t stop a giggle from escaping her. “No, no, Aleph… Short, like little. Your hair would be as long as… this,” and she demonstrated by softly cupping her hands under Aleph’s hair and sectioned off a portion of it with her index and thumb. The place she sectioned it off at was somewhere just above his neck, at about jaw line.

For a moment, there was a lapse in excitement. But, of course, (and though she knew she really should come to expect it) it wasn’t really Aleph if he wasn’t getting all uppity about something.

“NO!!!” he yelped, and he suddenly reached behind him as best he could and grappled and batted Gabriel’s hands away. With both eyebrows raised, she released his hair and pulled away.

“No, I LIKE my hair! I LIKE it! It’s mine!” And just as fussy as his outburst began, he immediately began combing his hair down and pulling it forward, as though he were protecting it from some imaginary pair of scissors.

Softly, albeit still startled, Gabriel replied, “Yes dear,” and that was the end of that discussion.

・・・

Rarely did Gabriel ever see Hiroko cry, and every time she did she knew the mother preferred to be alone, but this time was an exception.

“Thank God he’s safe,” she babbled between sobs, her son cradled to her side, as they sat in the living room space some hours after the incident, “I was so scared, when they told me the Messians came back--”

Gabriel never knew what words to say to make her feel better. She had a comforting and loving touch, but speaking to humans was much harder than she previously thought. Still, she was determined to try, and she moved close to Hiroko and knelt down beside her.

She gently touched, then held, Hiroko’s shoulder, with an equally gentle gaze.

“They passed by us without a second thought. I heard them quite clearly from where we hid… and Aleph did a very good job staying quiet.”

She sniveled and nearly slapped her own face trying to wipe her face of the tears racing down them. Her makeup was running terribly, and smudged against her own gloves, but she didn’t seem to notice. “B-but, God, what if… What if they come again, and they find him this time, and--”

“They _won’t,_ ” Gabriel retorted firmly. “They won’t, Hiroko. You know as well as I do that I would not let them.”

“And… if anyone figures out who you are, what then…? What if… wh-what if something bad happens to you? I’m sure I can defend him and myself, but only for so long…”

A tinge of warmth strikes Gabriel’s face inappropriately, though it was a different kind of warmth than the kind she felt hours earlier. She shook her head and squeezed Hiroko’s shoulder, instead. “It will take far more than a pair of humans to wound me, even severely. I would worry more about yourself and Aleph. Should I lose either one of you…

It would be a fate worse than death for me.”

If Hiroko could see through her tears, she might have noticed typically-bronze eyes flashing a dangerous yellow for just a second. Whether she did or didn’t, she made no indication.

She laid weakly into Gabriel’s waiting arms. Gabriel caught her and held her close. Aleph, caught between them, simply enjoyed their shared company.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh hey I guess I'm continuing this after all

**Author's Note:**

> I might continue this later, I might not, but damn if I don't go hard for this AU. It wasn't originally an AU, but a headcanon: that Aleph's holiness (best shown through his ability to cause one particular demon to straight up _go to Nirvana_ upon being touched) comes from the fact that he is an angelic product. I noticed that Gabriel, all throughout SMTII, rarely stands in his way and, even on Chaos route, will do nothing to stop him from getting to Satan or YHVH. So, I put two and two together, and coupled with the fact that Gabriel can be any gender she so desires...
> 
> Aleph has 2 moms, and a family can be a single mom, an archangel and a test tube baby.


End file.
